We come now to the second question, _How are men sanctified?_ There are several parts to the complete answer of this question.
1. The first part of the answer is found in our text of this chapter, I Thess. 5:23, +"And the God of Peace himself sanctify you wholly and may your Spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."+ It appears from this verse that _God sanctifies men, and Sanctification is God's work_. Both the separation of men from sin and their separation unto God, is God's work. As it was God who in the old dispensation set apart the first-born of Israel unto Himself, so it is God who in the new dispensation sets apart the believer unto Himself and separates him from sin. Sanctification is primarily not our work but God's.
2. The second part of the answer is found in Eph. 5:25, 26, +"Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water by the word."+ Here we are taught that _Christ sanctifies the church_ and that _Sanctification is Christ's work_. The question, of course, arises, in what sense does Christ sanctify the church. The answer is found in Heb. 10:10, +"By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."+ Here it appears that Jesus Christ sanctifies the church by giving Himself up a sacrifice for it. By thus giving Himself up for it as a sacrifice Christ sets the Church apart for God. Just as the blood of the Passover Lamb in the 11th and 12th chapters of Exodus set a difference between Israel and the Egyptians, so our Lord Jesus by the offering of His own body has forever put a difference between the believer in Himself and the world, and has forever set every believer apart for God. The Cross of Christ stands between the believer and the world. The shed blood of Christ separates the believer from the world, purchases him to God and thus makes him to belong to God.
3. The third part of the answer to the question, how men are sanctified, is found in 2 Thess. 2:13 and in other passages, +"But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, for that God chose you from the beginning unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth."+ It appears from this passage, as from other passages in the Bible, that _it is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies the believer_, and that _Sanctification is the Holy Spirit's work_. Here the question arises, In what sense does the Holy Spirit sanctify the believer? In this sense, just as in the Old Testament type, tabernacle, altar and priest were set apart for God by the anointing oil (Lev. 8:10-12), so in the New Testament anti-type, the believer, who is both tabernacle and priest, is set apart for God by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Further than that, it is the Holy Spirit's work in the heart that overcomes the flesh and its defilements, and thus separates the believer from sin and clothes him with divine graces of character, and makes him fit to be God's own. As Paul puts it in Gal. 5:22, 23, +"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control."+ In opposition to this work of the Holy Spirit, we read in the immediately preceding verses what "the works of the flesh" are, an awful catalogue of vileness and sin, and we are told in the 16th verse, +"Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh."+
4. The fourth part of the answer to the question how we are sanctified is found in Heb. 13:12, +"Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered without the gate."+ It is plain from this passage that _believers are sanctified through the blood of Jesus Christ_. Here the question arises, In what sense does the blood of Jesus sanctify? The answer is plain: _The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all the guilt of sin_, and thus separates us from the mass of men under the curse of the broken law, and sets us apart for God (cf. 1 John 1:7, 9). In the Old Testament dispensation the blood of the sacrifice cleansed the Israelites from the _guilt_ of ceremonial offenses and set them apart for God; in the New Testament anti-type the blood of Christ cleanseth the believer from the _guilt_ of moral offenses and sets him apart for God.